


Between the lines

by seratonation



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Child Abuse, M/M, Neglect, Pre-Slash, attempted prostitution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-24
Updated: 2012-03-24
Packaged: 2017-11-02 11:10:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/368325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seratonation/pseuds/seratonation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik finds a kid waiting on the street, and just wants to help him out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between the lines

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as a tumblr rps fic for [this photoset](http://permanentlyjetlagged.tumblr.com/post/11843610116/erikwhatareyoudoing-oh-yes-i-was-reminded-once). I switched it around and finished it. Betad by [](http://liamar13.livejournal.com/profile)[**liamar13**](http://liamar13.livejournal.com/), all remaining mistakes are my own.

“Need a ride?”

“I’m waiting for someone,” Charles lied.

“You’ve been there all night,” Erik said, “you’re not waiting for anyone.”

“How do you know? You just got here,” Charles said, “unless you’ve been watching me, which is a bigger reason for me to not go with you.”

“Listen,” Erik said, “I passed by more than an hour ago and you haven’t moved since. I just wanted to help.”

Charles wrapped his arms tightly around himself. Erik put out his cigarette and was about to start his bike again when Charles spoke again, too low for Erik to make out the words.

“What was that?”

“I _said_ , I have nowhere to go,” Charles said, “even if I was to accept a ride from helpful strangers, there’s no where I could go.”

Erik hesitated. “Come home with me,” he said, “I’ll put you up for the night.”

“No thanks,” Charles said.

“Fine,” Erik bit back, fed up with this stubborn Englishman. He obviously wanted to stay out here in the cold and dark. He started his bike, the sound echoing in the empty street and the man stood up.

“Wait,” Charles said, “maybe… Maybe one night? I’ll pay you back.”

Erik took out the spare helmet and passed it to him. “I don’t need payment, you not freezing out here is enough.”

Charles picked up his backpack, took the helmet and put it on before climbing in behind Erik. “I’m Charles.”

“Charles,” Erik repeated, “I’m Erik, you better hold on.”

***

Erik’s apartment was small. He tried to not feel self conscious as he showed Charles around.

“It’s not much,” he said, “but the couch is comfortable enough, and it’s warm, I’ll just get you something to wear and blankets.”

He took out some extra sheets and three of his extra blankets and went out again.

“There’s nothing valuable enough to steal, so don’t try,” Erik said, handing him the pile, “I’m a light sleeper, so if you try to come into my room, I’ll know before you even think about your next move. The kitchen has food, help yourself, and the bathroom is over there.” He pointed to the last unopened door in the small space.

“A little paranoid are you?” Charles said, only half joking.

“Just careful,” Erik replied. He had a hard time trusting anyone, and a small part of him still thought this was a terrible idea but he knew he couldn’t have left Charles there. This was the right thing to do.

Erik went to his room then and closed the door. He got ready for bed, and went to sleep.

He was awakened sometime around midnight, by the sound of his door opening.

“Erik?” a voice said in the dark. He opened his eyes to see Charles framed against the light from the living room. He didn’t look threatening. In fact, in Erik's larger clothes, he looked even smaller than he probably was.

“What’s wrong?” Erik asked.

“I'm here to repay you for your hospitality,” Charles said.

“Can’t it wait till morning?” Erik said.

“No,” Charles said, and then in two steps was sliding into Erik's bed. He could smell the alcohol on Charles breath.

“Wait what?” Erik said, and backed away until he was out of the bed himself, “what are you doing?”

“I have no money,” Charles said, “but I have a talented mouth, and everyone loves a blow job, and I figured with the rate on the streets these days, a blow job would be enough to cover the night’s expenses?”

“Are you crazy?” Erik asked, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It had to be some sort of dream.

“No you're right,” Charles said, “I'm sorry, if you have lube-“

“Stop talking right now,” Erik interrupted, taking another step back and Charles sat up on his knees to face Erik.

“Is it because I'm a man?” Charles said, seriously.

“No,” Erik said, “but that’s not-“

“Am I not attractive enough?” Charles said, “would you rather I do something else?”

“No, you’re not unattractive, in fact you’re very attractive,” Erik started and then shook his head, “that’s not the point, if this were to happen I would not want it to happen this way-“

“So you wanted this to happen?” Charles said, moving closer.

Erik backed away even further, moving towards the door. “No, I just didn’t want you to fr-“

Charles lunged at Erik, there was a struggle before Erik could get away and slam the door. He just happened to be on the wrong side when it happened. "Okay," he said, "okay, you stay in there; I'll sleep out here, just, stay on that side."

He slowly backed away from the door, expecting it to swing open. When it didn't, he retired to the couch.

He sat with his feet crossed on the coffee table, the lights off and the tv running. He woke up the next morning still in that position, with a crick in his neck.

The door to his bedroom was still closed so he figured it was safe to assume that Charles was still sleeping.

He got up to splash water on his face and start on breakfast. By the time the coffee was done Charles had ambled out of the bedroom and straight to the bathroom. He was out five minutes later, but there was no denying the dark circles under his eyes.

“Morning,” Erik said.

Charles mumbled a reply and went straight to the coffee. Erik watched as he grabbed one of the mugs hanging under the cabinet and filled it, sipping at it before he made his way to the island to sit opposite Erik.

“I wanted to apologise for last night,” he said, “I maybe had a little too much to drink, got a little carried away…”

Erik took in Charles blood shot eyes and dishevelled hair and nodded. “It’s fine.”

“I really do not have any money,” he said, “my step father has cut me off and I foolishly spent the last of my money on alcohol, but I start my internship in a week, so I will pay you back then.”

Erik shook his head. “I don’t want your money.”

“Was there anything else I can do for you?” Charles said, and blushed, “within reason of course, I'm really not like that normally-“

Erik took pity on him, smiled what he hoped was an accepting smile. “It’s all right, no harm done,” he said, just as his neck gave a twinge, “just consider it a good deed.”

Charles nodded. “Thank you, again,” he said, and got ready to leave.

“You’re not having breakfast?” Erik asked, gesturing at the half full cup of coffee.

“No, I’ll be alright,” Charles said, and grabbed his coat before leaving.

Once he was gone, Erik went about his day. He found that he couldn’t stop thinking about Charles though, so he decided to go out for dinner. Some fresh air will help clear his mind, but when he turned the corner he found Charles leaning against a wall, collar up and hat pulled down to hide his face, and a cigarette dangling loosely from his lips.

Erik approached him cautiously. “Is Charles even your real name?”

“Erik!” Charles said, nearly dropping his cigarette, “what are you doing here?”

“You didn’t really go far,” Erik said, pointing down the street, “I live just around the corner.”

“Bugger,” Charles said, “I went down to the more… populated area, but the others kicked me off, something about ‘their corner’. Who knew they would be so territorial? Then I came back up but couldn’t remember what street you were on so I could avoid- er, I mean-“

“Have you gotten any hits?” Erik asked.

“Any-?” Charles said, looking momentarily confused, “oh! No, I guess I'm not as approachable as I had thought.”

Erik rolled his eyes. “I was just going to dinner, come on.”

“Is this- are you-?” Charles said, stepping away from the wall to follow Erik.

“No,” Erik said firmly, “it’s just dinner, and then you're coming back home with me and sleeping on the couch.”

“But-“

“No buts,” Erik said, “you can’t stay out here all night.”

Charles had no choice but to follow.

***

Charles had no idea what he was doing. He followed Erik to the take out place, and then back home. They spread the boxes over the kitchen island and Charles told Erik everything. He figured things couldn’t get much worse. He told Erik about how his mother and step father had thrown him out of the house, how he didn’t have a penny to call his own until he hit 18 in a few months.

“I have my internship,” he said, “that wasn’t a lie, but there are no places that would let me stay without a down payment, and there’s still food to think about, and you said yourself that I wasn’t unattractive-“

“Wait, wait stop,” Erik said, “there are shelters and soup kitchens and aid, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many of them out there, what kind of a sheltered life-“

“I know, but I've learned, those people don’t help people like me.”

“Those people- people like- I don’t understand.”

Charles felt himself withdraw. He pulled his hands off the table, looked at them in his lap. He tried to remind himself this wasn’t his fault. He hated this part anyway.

“Child protective services were the first to blatantly do it,” he said, “I thought maybe they were right, that there was nothing wrong with the way my step-father punished me, social services were next, and I thought it was normal for my mother to be so protective of him, she’d lost her first husband after all. The police, the doctors, they didn’t see anything wrong so I thought-“ he shrugged, “the only reason they kept me around so long was for that money my father had left me.”

Erik looked like he was a little overwhelmed, but not enough to change his mind, which Charles was grateful for. “But if they cut you off how do they expect to see any of it?”

“They think that a little while on the streets will teach me a lesson, that I’ll go crawling back, grateful for how good they were and I’ll be willing to give them the money if they just let me come back.”

Erik raised an eyebrow at him, and Charles felt himself blush. “I heard them talking.”

“You seem like a nice kid,” Erik said, “just stay the whole week, until your whatever it is starts and you get back on your feet.”

“I’m not a kid,” Charles said, “I've just hit a slight bump in the road,”

“Alright, Charles,” Erik said, “you’re on the couch tonight.”

***

Charles hit the papers the next day, he looked for anything available in the next week that would be within his range. He tried to stay out of Erik's way, but Erik's apartment was barely big enough for one person.

On the third day, Erik went to work and left Charles alone. He contemplated leaving again, he hated being a burden on anyone, but he honestly had nowhere to go, and there was no way in hell he was going back to his mother’s house.

By the time he made it through all of that day’s paper, he was exhausted. He could feel his vision going fuzzy around the edges and wondered if he’ll be able to buy a pair of reading glasses to replace the ones he'd left behind.

Instead he dug around the kitchen and found vegetables and pasta and cheese and tomato sauce and got an idea. By the time Erik came home Charles had made dinner and set the table.

“What is all this?” Erik asked, coming through the door as Charles was putting the finishing touches to the table.

“I- I made you dinner, made _us_ dinner,” he said, “you had everything and I had some time so,” he shrugged.

Erik looked at him warily and held up a finger. “Hold that thought,” he said and moved to his room.

He came back a few minutes later in more comfortable clothes, but still looking cautious. “You didn’t have to do this,” he said but pulled out a seat and sat down.

“It was no trouble,” Charles said, “like I said, it’s all your ingredients, I just put them together, I thought since I didn’t have the money to pay you back- all I have is time.”

Erik rolled his eyes. “I told you, I don’t need payment, and you should stop talking about it.”

They ate in silence for a while, until Erik spoke up again. “It’s pretty good,” he said. He sounded disgruntled, like he didn’t really want to admit it.

“Thanks,” Charles grinned, “I used to hang around the kitchens, Mrs. Whitlow would always let me help.”

“And you got all this from my kitchen?”

“Yes, the secret is in the process,” Charles said.

“You’ll have to show me sometime,” Erik said.

Charles’ grin widened. “I’d love that.”

***

Charles talked to his supervisor and managed to work something out so he was able to move out at the end of the week.

Erik wasn’t as glad as he thought he would be. The house felt empty somehow. It was only a week, that was hardly enough time to get used to someone, but he couldn’t remember what it was like before Charles had invaded his life.

He tried watching TV and when he couldn’t settle on a channel he flipped open his laptop. He was caught up with all of his websites in 20 minutes and he was restless again.

When his phone rang he did not jump, and he absolutely did not leap to answer it. Erik Lehnsherr does not leap. And if his “hello,” was breathless, well, he could have just been working out. Erik wanted to smack himself on the forehead.

The voice on the other end sounded hesitant. “Is this Erik?”

“Yes?”

“Oh, good, I was worried I had the wrong number, this is Charles, you sound different on the phone,” he said all in one go.

“Congratulations on the phone line,” he said, unable to keep the smile from his voice.

“Yeah! Thank you,” Charles said, “step one sorted, now I have to worry about the hundred or so other steps I have to take.”

Erik laughed. “I’m sure you will do fine,” he said, “and to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Oh well, this is my first phone call and I thought I’d use to it to invite you to dinner.”

“I’m not sure that’s a great idea,” Erik said, sitting back against the couch, “you just got an advance, it means you’ll always be one week behind-“

“Oh, no, no,” Charles said, “it’s all sorted, I’ll explain over dinner, at my place, I mean, I’ll be cooking anyway, and- and I really enjoyed your company.”

Erik considered it a moment longer then, “okay,” he said, “yeah, alright.”

Charles gave Erik his address and they agreed on a time.

When they hung up Erik reflected how he wouldn’t have to get used to being alone again. He had a feeling this stubborn Englishman wasn’t going too far after all.  



End file.
